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What do you do with Old R22?

05-09-2008, 12:09 PM

Currently, we turn our recovery cylinders in to RE Michel, and they charge about $1.00 per pound to make it go away. (presumably, it gets recycled and sold to us again, later and new stuff)
I keep getting calls and post cards from companies who want to buy our used refrigerant. Now that R-22 is well over $5 per pound, and (new) production is going to stop in a year and a half, it makes sense that there would be a market for used refrigerant. Does anybody use one of these services?
Here is one examplewww.usarefrigerants.com

Comment

If I'm recovering it, I'll assume that it's contaminated. Although we used to work on bigger stuff. My dad used to have to recover 300# of refrigerant from one system to replace valve heads or something. That he would save and reuse. (for the same customer; I think that's a legal requirement)
It may take one of our technicians the whole summer to fill up one recovery cylinder, and a lot of that is from compressor failures.

Comment

I just got an email back from the company I was asking about.
They ship you a cylinder that holds 750 pounds. You keep a written log of how many pounds you put in there, and call when it's full. It would take us 5 years to fill one of those things up. Getting paid $1.25 per pound instead of having to pay $1.00 per pound would be nice though.

I'm still curious if anybody is using this or another similar company.

Comment

If I'm recovering it, I'll assume that it's contaminated. Although we used to work on bigger stuff. My dad used to have to recover 300# of refrigerant from one system to replace valve heads or something. That he would save and reuse. (for the same customer; I think that's a legal requirement)
It may take one of our technicians the whole summer to fill up one recovery cylinder, and a lot of that is from compressor failures.

It's been awhile since I got my universal but I do remember something that says you can't recover refrigerant and reuse in another appliance. You either put original refrigerant back in or it's brand new refrigerant.

Johnstone charges me 16 for a 30lb tank and 23 for a 50lber. Are you in jamestown VA?

Buy cheap, buy twice.

Comment

It's been awhile since I got my universal but I do remember something that says you can't recover refrigerant and reuse in another appliance. You either put original refrigerant back in or it's brand new refrigerant.

That is absolutely correct. I pay $50 everytime I turn a cylinder in. Doesnt matter if it has 2 or 30 lbs, still $50.